Method and system for leveraging the power of one&#39;s social network in an online marketplace

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for leveraging one&#39;s social network in the context of an opportunities marketplace are described. One aspect of the invention involves integrating social networking features into an online marketplace, or exchange. Accordingly, one aspect of the invention involves facilitating an opportunity search in a manner that provides social networking information with the results of the search.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/146,815, filed Jun. 6, 2005, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/643,710, filed on Jan. 12,2005, which applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

At least one embodiment of the present invention relates generally tothe integration of a social-networking scheme with one or more on-linemarketplaces. More particularly, the present invention provides methodsand systems for leveraging one's social-network to gain a competitiveinformational advantage when participating in an online marketplace.

BACKGROUND

Computer networks, such as the Internet, have given rise to a widevariety of online marketplaces providing people with new ways to buy andsell goods and services, exchange ideas, and generally connect withother people. One service area in particular that has been significantlyimpacted by the Internet is job search services. The Internet haschanged the approach that many people take when performing a search fora new job. Numerous online websites are dedicated to matching jobseekers with job providers. Some of the online job matching services aredirected to very specific markets, for example, matching computerprogrammers with short-term contract work.

Nearly all online job services suffer from the same general problem.Studies have shown that more than half of all jobs and consultingcontracts are found when the job applicant is personally referred to thehiring organization, as opposed to when the job applicant responds to ajob posting and/or applies directly with no previous connection to thehiring organization. From the perspective of a company or other hiringorganization, although only a relatively small percentage of all jobcandidates are referred by someone in the company or hiringorganization, these referrals may account for more than half of thepeople hired for jobs and consulting contracts.

Generally, online job matching services work in much the same way that atraditional newspaper classifieds section works. A company may postinformation about a job offering to a database that is accessible via awebsite hosted by the company or a third-party. Accordingly, potentialjob candidates may browse, research, or even apply for a job posted onthe website. Typically, a job posting from an online job matchingservice identifies the posting organization (e.g., the organizationoffering the job) and/or the person responsible for the posting. In somecases, a job posting may even include the name of the person making thehiring decision.

Because most jobs are gained through personal connections, a smart jobseeker may attempt to find someone with a connection to the postingorganization or posting individual through people in the job seeker'ssocial network. Currently, however, online job matching services do notprovide any features or functions that facilitate leveraging one'ssocial network while performing an online job search. Instead, a jobseeker must use more traditional means of analyzing his or her personalnetwork of contacts after he or she has identified a potential jobopening of interest. Alternatively, a job seeker may turn to an onlinesocial networking service that he or she may belong to in order toconduct research of his or her social network, and hopefully identifysomeone within his or her social network who has a connection to the jobposting.

Previous job matching services have implemented reputation systems thataccrue reputation information by asking participants to rate otherparticipants with whom they have worked or contracted. For example, sucha reputation system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,784 to Hans MaxTheodore Bukow. However, the type of reputation system described in thepatent to Bukow only provides a job provider or a job seeker with theability to contact a person who has provided reputation information. Forexample, the system does not provide a job provider or a job seeker withany insight into how he or she can gain access to a trusted source ofinformation. Furthermore, many people who may be willing to provide aprivate endorsement may be reluctant to provide a public or formalendorsement or rating. Consequently, participants may find it difficultto obtain reputation ratings utilizing systems that rely exclusively onformal reputation ratings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in whichlike references indicate similar elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a user interface for performing anopportunity search, consistent with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a user interface for displaying theresults of an opportunity search, consistent with one embodiment of theinvention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate examples of social network searches associatedwith an opportunity search, according to two different embodiments ofthe invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a user interface for showing thedetails of a particular opportunity posting, consistent with oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an opportunity provider profile,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a user interface for submitting anapplication for a particular opportunity, consistent with an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a user interface showing a submittedapplication, consistent with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a job search companion interface,consistent with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a social networking toolbar interface,consistent with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a user interface for posting anopportunity, consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a user interface for controllingaccess to a particular opportunity posting, consistent with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a user interface providing amanagement interface to manage one or more opportunity postings,consistent with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a user interface showing the status ofa particular opportunity posting, consistent with an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a user interface showing searchresults for an employee referral program, consistent with an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a user interface showing the resultsof a search performed as part of an employee referral feature,consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of a social networking system that ishosted separately from, but integrated with, an online opportunityexchange, according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of a user interface for a job searchservice providing social networking features, consistent with anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a user interface showing socialnetworking information related to a job search performed at a job searchservice, consistent with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems for leveraging one's social-network to gain acompetitive informational advantage when participating in an onlinemarketplace are described. In the following description, for purposes ofexplanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident,however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details.

The present invention involves the integration of social-networkingsystems and online marketplaces. One embodiment of the present inventionprovides a unique and important enhancement to social networking systemsand services, such as that provided by LinkedIn Corporation of PaloAlto, Calif., accessible at URI: http://www.linkedin.com. Accordingly,many of the methods and systems described herein are closely related tomethods and systems described in greater detail in previously filed U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/852,236, filed on May 8, 2001, andpreviously filed U.S. Provisional Patent Applications with Ser. Nos.60/607,040 and 60/625,287 and 60/631,012 filed on Sep. 2, Nov. 4, andNov. 23, 2004, respectively.

In addition, various embodiments of the present invention provide newand improved functionality and features to online “opportunities”marketplaces, such as online job and consulting exchanges. Although manyof the examples provided herein are described in the context ofopportunities related to jobs and consulting contracts, it will beappreciated that the present invention is equally applicable to alltypes of opportunities where it is important for the parties involved toobtain trusted information about each other. Accordingly, aspects of thepresent invention may be integrated with business brokerage services,business-to-business marketplaces, service related marketplaces, datingservices, auction services, etc.

The present invention provides one with the ability to leverage thepower of his or her existing social network to gain a competitiveadvantage in an online opportunities marketplace. One embodiment of theinvention provides features of social networking systems that have beenspecially customized to address the needs of users of opportunitiessystems. Until the present invention, a number of features of socialnetworking systems have been developed; however none prior to thisinvention have been specifically developed for or combined withopportunities marketplace applications.

Enhancing a social networking system with an opportunities exchange addsvalue, from the perspective of the user, and improves the overall userexperience. Similarly, integrating social networking features into anonline opportunities marketplace or exchange provides marketparticipants with the ability to gain more information and make moreinformed decisions when participating in, or executing, online and socalled “real world” transactions.

One embodiment of the present invention is directed to helpingopportunity seekers more quickly and efficiently find and obtain theright job or contract by leveraging their social networks to a) findopportunities that match their qualifications; b) evaluate a particularopportunity and posting organization by getting inside information frompeople in their social networks who are familiar with the postingorganization and managers; and c) get a personal introduction to theopportunity poster from an individual the poster knows and trusts.Currently, opportunities exchanges only provide information on theopportunity poster and applicant. If an applicant wants to find aninside connection to a poster, or vice versa, this must be done outsideof the context of the opportunities marketplace. The current invention,for example, significantly reduces the work required of any applicant byshowing them a view of the opportunity that already includes the resultsof the research they would need to do in order to find a personalconnection to the opportunity.

In addition, one embodiment of the invention is directed to helping jobproviders and other opportunity providers with an effective means forfinding candidates using their social networks to gain access to deeperinformation about candidates and to manage and prioritize incomingapplicants using that information.

In a computer-implemented social networking scheme consistent with anembodiment of the present invention, users may be grouped into one oftwo categories—opportunity seekers, and opportunity posters (e.g., jobseekers and job posters, buyers and sellers, etc.) An opportunityposter, utilizing an embodiment of the present invention, may be able toboth post opportunities and manage applicants (e.g., opportunity seekerswho have responded to a posted opportunity). Similarly, opportunityseekers may be able to search, browse and/or respond to opportunitiesposted by others. In one embodiment, users of the system may be promptedto establish an online social network by first completing a profile andthen establishing direct connections, or links, to other users of thesystem. The procedure for establishing a user profile and building asocial network via a social networking system is described in muchgreater detail in the above-referenced patent applications.

For purposes of clarity, the following description of the invention hasbeen divided into two sections based on the two groups ofusers—opportunity providers and opportunity seekers. Accordingly, thefirst section describes aspects of the invention as they relate to aparticipant in the role of opportunity seeker. The second sectionpresents aspects of the invention as they relate to a participant in therole of opportunity provider. Finally, in the third section, anembodiment of the invention is described for which a social networkingsystem is hosted separately from, but integrated with, an onlineopportunity exchange.

Many of the examples provided herein are described in the context ofemployment or job opportunities, however, it will be appreciated thatthe present invention is not so limited. The present invention may beimplemented to work with a wide variety of opportunity exchanges ormarketplaces. Accordingly, a social-network system may provide severalcategories of opportunities, much the same way that classified ads in anewspaper are grouped or classified by subject. In particular, inaddition to a job search application, a social-networking systemconsistent with the present invention may include enhanced socialnetworking features that are integrated with a dating service, a marketfor goods and services, an activities marketplace, a file sharingservice, a ticket exchange, or any other type of online exchange ormarket. Moreover, the particular market or exchange may exist entirelyonline, or alternatively, the market or exchange may be enhanced by anonline system in the same way that a real world job market is enhancedby an online job search service.

I. Applications for Opportunity Seekers

It will be appreciated that one embodiment of the present invention maybe implemented as part of a social networking service, or system.Accordingly, many of the examples provided herein are described in termsof user interface features for a social networking system. Inparticular, sample web pages are utilized to illustrate how oneembodiment of the invention may be implemented. However, one skilled inthe art will recognize that the invention may be implemented in avariety of ways, and the examples provided herein are not meant to limitthe scope of the invention.

Opportunity Search Interface

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an opportunity search interface (e.g.,job search web page) consistent with a user interface for one embodimentof the invention. Accordingly, in one embodiment of the invention, auser of the social-network-enhanced opportunity system may select a linkor button on a user interface to browse or search for potential jobopportunities. Accordingly, the user may utilize features available in astandard web browser application to navigate to an “Opportunities”section of a social networking system where the user may interact withan opportunity search interface, similar to the example “Job Search” webpage shown in FIG. 1.

In one embodiment of the invention, a navigation header or menu bar (notshown) may provide a user with a button or link to the opportunitysearch page. Accordingly, the navigation header may be available fromany web page hosted by the social networking system or online exchangeso that a user may navigate to the opportunity search page at any time,from any web page that is part of the service or system.

In addition, the opportunity search page may include a variety of searchfields, such as those illustrated in the job search page shown inFIG. 1. For example, in the context of a job search service, a jobsearch page may include search fields for performing searches based on:Keywords, Job Type (e.g., full-time, part-time, contract), Job Title,Organization, Location, Job Function, Industry, Experience/Skill Level,Salary Range, Organization type, Organization size, etc. Additionally,the search fields available in the job search page may be available inadditional search interfaces elsewhere on the jobs site, or on any otherportion of the user interface. In particular, the job search resultspage (illustrated in FIG. 4) may include one or more search fieldsproviding a user the ability to refine a previous search. The socialnetworking service may include a Jobs Home Page, which may include asearch interface having a frequently used subset of all searchablefields, for example: keywords, location, industry, and job function.

In one embodiment, when a job seeker is performing a job search, thesearch may be executed over all active listings in a jobs database. Aswill be discussed in greater detail below, the jobs database may behosted by the social networking service, or alternatively, the jobsdatabase may be one of a variety of separately hosted opportunityexchanges that are integrated to function with the social networkingsystem. By default, job postings that satisfy a job seeker's searchparameters may be sorted, for example, by date with the most recentlyposted job listing appearing first. In addition, in one embodiment ofthe invention, a job seeker may specify filtering criteria (e.g., “anytime”, “in last day”, “in last week”, etc.) so that job postingssatisfying the job seeker's search parameters may be filtered accordingto the date on which the job listing was posted. The search results mayalso be filtered according to the job seeker's specifications regardingthe relationship between the job seeker and the job provider (e.g., theperson or organization that posted the job listing). For instance, thejob seeker may opt to filter the search results to include only thosejob postings for which the job seeker has a connection to the jobprovider via the job seeker's social network. For example, the jobseeker may opt to only include search results where the job seeker isconnected to people in the posting organization within three degrees, orwithin three degrees and where the connection strength between eachconnecting individual is equal to or greater than a minimum value.

In addition, a search may also be filtered according to reputationcriteria that a job seeker requires for the job provider, including theperson or organization posting a job posting. For example, suchreputation criteria for the posting individual may include a minimumnumber of endorsements, or a minimum endorsement score that takes intoeffect reputation scores for endorsers and/or endorsers' networks.Examples of endorsement and reputations scores that may be utilized withthe present invention are described in greater detail in the U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos. 60/607,040 and 60/625,287,filed on Sep. 2, and Nov. 4, 2004, respectively.

Instead of or in addition to filtering search results by social networkrelationship criteria or reputation criteria, a job seeker may alsochoose to specify that one or more of these criteria be used to sort theresults of the search. For example, a job seeker may specify to have thesearch results first sorted according to relevance of match (e.g.,keyword, etc.), then according to a score based on the “closeness” ofthe relationship between the job seeker and job posting, job provider,or according to any of the reputation indicators implemented in theparticular social networking system. Moreover, in one embodiment, theopportunity postings, or job postings may be displayed in an order basedin part on some combination of the relevance of the match to the searchcriteria and the connection strength between the opportunity seeker andthe opportunity posting.

The search query format may be either a structured search query (e.g.,using pre-defined fields with fixed values, where the field values arecombined according to a Boolean expression), or a type of naturallanguage query, or a combination of the two.

Opportunity Search-Results Interface

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an opportunity search-results interface(e.g., a job search results web page) consistent with a user interfacefor one embodiment of the invention. The job search results page shownin FIG. 2 includes a listing of search results generated in response toa job seeker's search request. Consistent with one embodiment of theinvention, when a search is executed, by default, only a predeterminednumber of job postings 10 are returned. Furthermore, in one embodiment,each job posting may have a short job posting format, showing only themost relevant high-level information about the posting 10, and adetailed job posting, showing the full details of the job posting. Forexample, the first fifty job postings may be displayed in short form,along with an option to view an additional page with more searchresults, if more than fifty job postings satisfied the job seekerssearch criteria. In addition, the total number of job postingssatisfying the job seeker's search criteria may be displayed.

Other aspects of a job search results interface may include an interfacefor refining a search 12. For example, the interface 12 may provide theability to modify the search parameters and fine tune the matching jobpostings. In one embodiment, the interface 12 may display the currentsearch parameters and include the keyword field even if it is empty. Inaddition, column headers (e.g., location, title, company date) may beincluded in the results page, allowing a user to re-sort the listedsearch results based on a user-selected column. For example, in oneembodiment, a column header may be a “clickable” link that causesresults to be re-sorted, when selected, or clicked. Finally, if a jobseeker's search results in more job postings than fit on a single page,the results interface may include features allowing the job seeker tonavigate several pages of results. For example, in one embodiment of theinvention, up to 50 pages of results may be possible.

In addition to displaying information related specifically to the jobposting that satisfied the job seeker's query, each job posting listedin the job search results interface may include information indicatinghow closely connected the job seeker is to the entity associated withthe job posting. For example, for each job posting satisfying the jobseeker's search criteria, a search of the job seeker's social network isperformed. FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate an example of the type of socialnetwork search performed in one embodiment of the invention. Asillustrated in FIG. 3, for each opportunity posting 14 that satisfiesjob search criteria specified by the job seeker, a search of the jobseeker's social network is performed to determine whether the job seekermay have an inside connection to the opportunity posting 14.Accordingly, in FIG. 3, the opportunity seeker 16 is shown to have fourpersons within his or her social network with a direct connection toJohn Smith, the opportunity poster. For example, each of the personsrepresented by A, B, C, and D are directly connected to John Smith.Furthermore, it can be seen in FIG. 3 that some connection paths may be“stronger” than others. For example, the opportunity seeker's 16connection to the opportunity posting 14 via person A may be consideredstronger because it is a first degree connection, whereas the connectionpath via person D is a fourth degree connection. As discussed in greaterdetail below, in alternative embodiments of the invention, theconnection strength may be a function of characteristics or attributesother than the degree of connectivity. For example, the connectionstrength may be a function of the type of relationship that existsbetween each two persons in the chain of person-to-person connectionsconnecting the opportunity seeker 16 with the opportunity posting 14.

In various embodiments of the invention, the social networking systemmay establish a connection between the opportunity seeker 16 and theopportunity posting 14 in different ways. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 3, the connection is established via a particular person associatedwith the posting entity—in this case, John Smith, the person who postedthe opportunity posting. However, in FIG. 4, a connection is establishedby determining all the persons in the opportunity seeker's 16 socialnetwork who are current members of the entity associated with theopportunity posting 14. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, theopportunity seeker has four total connection paths to the opportunityposting through three different members (e.g., X, Y and Z) of theorganization (e.g., Company XYZ) associated with the opportunity posting14. In alternative embodiments, a connection may be established byidentifying persons in the opportunity seeker's social network who areformer members of the posting organization. Furthermore, in oneembodiment, a connection may be established between the opportunityseeker and the opportunity posting via a person that is in the sameaffinity group as the opportunity seeker. For example, the socialnetwork search may identify persons associated with the postingopportunity that belong to one or more of the same organizations as theopportunity seeker. In another embodiment of the invention, the postingentity may be an individual, as opposed to a company or organization. Inthat case, connections may be established by identifying persons in theopportunity seeker's social network who have a direct connection to theindividual who posted the opportunity.

Short Job Posting

The short format of the job posting shown in the job search results pageillustrated in FIG. 2 may include the primary details of the job. Forexample, in one embodiment of the invention, the job details included inthe short format of the job posting may include: a job title, which mayinclude a hyperlink to a detailed view of the job posting; a company ororganization name; the date on which the job posting was posted; alocation description that may be in a user-specified format, or in asystem specified region, defined for example by country and/or zip code;a desired experience level; a job type, for example, full-time,part-time, contract, etc.; a job poster title, or type, for example,hiring manager, recruiter, etc.; social network information (e.g., anindicator to quickly show whether the job seeker has any connections tothe job provider). Additionally, in one embodiment, if the job seekerperformed a keyword search, phrases in the job posting that include thematching keywords may be shown with the keywords highlighted in boldtext.

As indicated above, in one embodiment, each job posting listed in shortformat may include social network information to let the job seeker knowhow his or her social network may assist them in learning more aboutand/or actually getting the job. It may be helpful to think of thissocial network information in one of three contexts.

First, the social networking information listed in the short format ofthe job posting may include “inside connection” information, which mayindicate how connected the viewer is to significant people in theposting organization. This information may be communicated via agraphical icon, or connectivity indicator, which may quickly communicateto the job seeker how much value the job seeker's social network canprovide to get the job seeker access to information sources anddecision-makers in the company. This connectivity indicator may beprovided as a score, or graphic, which, in one embodiment, may be basedon a function or algorithm including a count of the number of people atthe job posting organization who are in the job seeker's social network,giving weight to degrees of separation as well as to the total number ofconnections. Any of the following examples and others like them may beimplemented:

-   -   (1) A simple count of the number of people in the job seeker's        network who are or who have recently been employed in the job        posting organization. This count may be executed by searching        all individual users of the underlying social networking system        who are within a specified distance (e.g., within 4 degrees of        separation) of the viewer and whose profiles list current or        recent positions (e.g., held within the last 2 years) within the        posting organization.    -   (2) Similar to (1) above, however, greater weight may be given        for closer connections, for example, by multiplying connections        of two degrees or less by one, connections of three degrees by        one-half and connections of four degrees by one-quarter and then        summing the result.    -   (3) Similar to (2) above, except with this addition: Greater        weight is given for stronger minimum connection strength between        nodes in the chain. For example, in a system where there are        three levels of connection strength, “High”, “Medium”, and        “Low”, then, where the minimum strength of connection between        any of the nodes in a chain of connection between the viewer and        the potential helper is “High”, multiply the value for the chain        derived from the method described in (b) by five, and where the        minimum strength is “Medium”, multiply the same by three, and        for “Low”, multiply the same by one.

Additional methods may be derived by using any of methods (1) through(3) above, and additionally by counting not only individuals who areparticipating as users in the social networking system, but alsocounting individuals who are not participating as users, but who arelisted as contacts in users' address books.

In one embodiment of the invention, one or more graphic icons may beused as connectivity indicators to indicate various levels or measuresof the job seeker's “Inside Connections” value, for a given job posting.A probabilistic method for deriving a value to display for thisindicator may be used to avoid the heavy computational load required togenerate a precise value. For example, a probabilistic method may takeinto account such factors as: the total number of people who areparticipating in the job seeker's social network, at each degree ofseparation, who are or have recently been employed by the job postingorganization; the total number of people in the job seeker's network asa whole, and within the particular industry, functional category andgeographic region of the posted opportunity and posting organization.These factors may be compared to a table derived from a record of actualconnections found between job seekers with similar factors and similarposted opportunities in order to determine the probable value of thecurrent job seeker's connection. Graphic icons or connectivityindicators may be used to represent the probable value rather thanstating a precise value.

In addition to “Inside Connections”, social networking informationpertaining to the degree or distance between the job seeker and jobprovider may be provided. This can be very useful to let the job seekerknow if he or she has a direct inside connection to the person postingthe job posting. An alternative is to also take minimum connectionstrength into consideration, for example, by showing the number ofdegrees in the shortest connection path and additionally showing a “+”or other symbol as part of a connectivity indicator if the minimumconnection strength of one of the shortest connections is at least acertain value. In addition, if there is no degree distance, but thesearcher and poster are in a shared affinity group, a small logo toindicate a common affinity group may be shown in addition to, or insteadof, the indicator for degree distance.

Finally, the social networking information included in the short formatof the job posting may include the number of endorsements of otherreputation related information of the job poster. This indicator may beuseful to help establish a positive reputation of the poster and/or ofthe employing organization. The reputation indicators that may bedisplayed are discussed in greater detail in U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Nos. 60/607,040 and 60/625,287 filed Sep. 2, 2004 and Nov.4, 2004, respectively.

In one embodiment, the reputation and connectivity indicators describedabove may only be shown if the job poster is visible to the job seeker,or if the information is shown for other prominent people within theorganization with whom the job seeker has an established connection viaa network of relationships.

Opportunity Page

When an opportunity seeker selects (e.g., by clicking) the name of anyopportunity listed in the search results page shown in FIG. 2, theopportunity seeker may see a detailed Opportunity Page, such as thatillustrated in FIG. 5. In the example Opportunity Page shown in FIG. 5,information about the job poster 18 has been included with the jobposting. Consequently, the detailed view of the job posting may includeinformation especially customized for the job seeker, in addition to thesame information that every other job seeker would see. For example, thejob seeker's social network is leveraged so that the job seeker's viewof the detailed job posting may include: the number of mutualconnections that the job seeker and the job poster have; how closely thejob seeker is connected to the job poster, for example, by how manydegrees of separation (within a threshold specified by either the jobseeker or the system), and connected through what direct contacts of thejob seeker; how many endorsements the job poster has, and optionally howconnected the job seeker may be to any of the endorsers; the affinitygroups (e.g., professional organizations, schools, etc.) of which thejob seeker and job poster are both members; and, the number of people inthe job seeker's extended social network who are currently connected toor who have been connected to the posting organization, both globallyand in the specific location for the posted opportunity.

The detailed view of the job posting may also include a link that thejob seeker can select (e.g., by clicking) to get additional informationabout any of the social network connections that exist between the jobseeker and the job poster or the posting organization. For example, whena job seeker selects a link to view the job poster's profile, he or shemay see a web page similar to that illustrated in FIG. 6. For example,in one embodiment, the job poster's profile may be viewable by jobseekers only if the job poster has elected to make his or her profileavailable with the job listing. Furthermore, in one embodiment, viewingof the job poster's profile page may be restricted according to specificinstructions provided by the job poster. For example, the job poster maymake his or her profile viewable only by persons who are connected tothe job poster within a certain number of degrees of separation, or onlyby persons whose profiles match minimum requirements for the job posted.Alternatively, the job poster's profile page may be made viewable by allusers of the social network system.

In one embodiment of the invention, a job poster's profile page mayinclude, but not be limited, to the following three sections: (1) joblisting summary 20, with a link back to the job posting; (2) jobposter's profile information 22; and (3) a list of all jobs 24 posted bythe job poster and/or by the posting organization, plus a link allowingthe job seeker to quickly scan those postings. In addition, the jobposter's profile page may include information, such as: backgroundinformation about the job poster's current and prior positions,education, interests, etc.; relationship to the viewer, via the socialnetwork of connections, including names of direct connections of the jobseeker who link the job seeker to the job poster; endorsements,including a link to endorsers and their qualifications; socialnetworking information showing how the job seeker may be connected tothe endorsers of the job poster; other reputation information, such asany one or more of the reputation indicators described in more detail inU.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/625,287.

In one embodiment of the invention, the job poster's profile page mayinclude a section listing other jobs 22 posted by the job poster andposting organization. Accordingly, that section may contain thefollowing information: list of other jobs posted by the job poster; thetotal number of jobs posted by the organization; and a link to a searchinterface for searching jobs at the organization. The list of other jobs22 posted by the job poster may show the title of each job posted by thejob poster with a link to the actual job listing. The list may be sortedin order by date, with the most recently posted job listed first. In thecase that there are several jobs in the list, the list may only show apredetermined number of the most recent jobs posted, with a link to theadditional jobs in the list. The current job (e.g., the job posting thatlead the job seeker to the job poster's profile page) may be indicatedin the list without link. However, in one embodiment, the current jobmay always be shown in the list so that the list contains at least oneposting.

Actions Available to Opportunity Seeker

Each opportunity posting (e.g., job posting) displayed to theopportunity seeker may include actionable links that allow theopportunity seeker to take various types of actions, including:tendering an offer to accept the opportunity (e.g., applying for a jobthat is posted), using the social network to find a person who is ableand willing to provide more information about the opportunity poster andthe posting organization, for example, to do a background check of thereputation of the poster and posting organization; and, searching directsocial network connections to select the best suited people who canserve as a reference (e.g., a job reference), or referral.

Applying for the Opportunity

In one embodiment of the invention, to apply for an opportunity, theopportunity seeker may select (e.g., by clicking a link or button) anoption entitled “apply for this opportunity (or job)”. Accordingly, inone embodiment, the social networking system may perform the followingprocedures: The opportunity seeker's profile information may be comparedto a list of minimum requirements that profiles must meet in order to beconsidered for the particular type of opportunity for which the jobseeker wishes to apply. For example, in the case of a job opportunity,the minimum requirements may include completing information on at leasta current employment position, and other positions and educationalexperiences dating back for a certain time period. If the opportunityseeker's profile does not meet the minimum requirements, for example, ifa current employment position is not described in the user's profile, amessage may be displayed informing the job seeker as to which parts ofhis or her profile need more information.

In another embodiment, the opportunity seeker's profile may be comparedto minimum requirements for applying for all types of opportunities thatthe viewer has stated an interest in, for example, each time theopportunity seeker's profile is updated and/or each time the opportunityseeker updates his or her statement of interest with respect to varioustypes of opportunities. The opportunity seeker may be alerted at thosetimes if his or her profile does not meet standard or minimumrequirements for viewing or applying for one or more of the types ofopportunities that the viewer has stated as an interest. The opportunityseeker may also be advised of what parts of his or her profile needadditional information to meet the minimum requirements. In such a case,even before the opportunity seeker applies for a particular opportunity,the system may already have data stored to indicate whether theopportunity seeker's profile meets minimum requirements for anyopportunity the opportunity seeker has indicated an interest in applyingfor.

If the opportunity seeker applies for a particular opportunity and theopportunity seeker's profile meets the minimum requirements for applyingfor the type of opportunity, then the system may compare the opportunityseeker's profile to the requirements of the particular opportunity thatthe opportunity seeker has just indicated a desire to apply for. If theresults of the comparison indicate that the opportunity seeker's profiledoes not meet the requirements for the opportunity, a message may bedisplayed advising the opportunity seeker of the deficiency. Forexample, such a message might indicate: “Your application can't beaccepted since your profile does not seem to meet the minimum jobrequirements.” Alternatively, the message might state, “If you have leftoff important job experiences, education, and skills, please add themnow. If you have references who can endorse your qualifications, we alsosuggest that you have them endorse your profile. When ready, pleasesubmit your application again.

If, on the other hand, the opportunity seeker's profile meets theminimum requirements for the opportunity, then the system may nextfacilitate the preparation and submission of an application, which maybe directly submitted to the opportunity poster, or to another persondesignated by the opportunity poster. FIG. 7 illustrates an exampleapplication interface, for submitting a job application to a job poster.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a submitted job application, from theperspective of the job poster. For example, in one embodiment, asubmitted application web page, such as that illustrated in FIG. 8, maybe displayed to the job poster at some time after a job applicant hassubmitted an application, such as that illustrated in FIG. 7. Forexample, in the case of an application for a job opportunity, theapplication may include a combination of the following information: areference to the particular job posting, including a summary of detailson the posting; the name and identity of the applicant, including asummary of the match between the applicant's profile and the opportunityrequirements. In addition, the application may also include informationregarding actual or potential overlap between the applicant's socialnetwork and the social networks of the job poster and others in theposting organization. As described in greater detail below, thisinformation may help the hiring manager evaluate the applicant bysuggesting people to whom the manager may be connected, who can providemore information about the applicant.

Request Reference Information from a Reference Contact

In one embodiment of the invention, the system facilitates thesubmission of reference information to the job poster. For example,after an application has been submitted to a job poster, the applicantmay request a directly connected social network contact to act as areference. Accordingly, the opportunity seeker (e.g., the job applicant)may submit a request to a directly connected contact, requesting thatthe contact submit an endorsement, or reference, to the opportunityprovider (e.g. the job poster). This may be useful even when thereference has already posted a generalized endorsement in theapplicant's profile because a) the reference person may be able to addmore information specifically related to the current opportunity, and/orb) the reference may have a close connection to the opportunity poster,either directly or indirectly through the social network, and/or c) theopportunity poster may not be a member of the social network system.

The following provides an example of how this may be implemented in oneembodiment. First, an actionable link may be provided to let theapplicant send a request to a reference. A message may be constructedand communicated to the reference. The message may include a combinationof the following (and other) information: the name of the applicant anda link to the applicant's profile; the relationship between theapplicant and the reference; a summary of the opportunity being appliedfor in addition to a link to the opportunity posting; information on theclosest connections between the reference and the poster and postingorganization; a copy of any general endorsements that the reference hasalready supplied for the applicant.

The message communicated from the applicant to the reference may alsoinclude actionable links that allow the reference to take action. Forexample, the reference may write an endorsement specific to theopportunity, which may be appended or attached to any previously-storedgeneralized endorsement for the applicant. The reference may then select(e.g. by clicking a “send” button) to submit the endorsement, at whichtime the system will send the endorsement to the opportunity poster inthe form of a message. The message may also contain information such as,identifiers of the opportunity and the applicant; the type ofrelationship between the reference and the applicant; a summary of thereference's qualifications to endorse the applicant for the currentopportunity, for example, expertise in the relevant industry and skillareas called for; any existing close relationship between the referenceand the poster or posting organization.

The reference or endorsement message may be evaluated before sending itto the opportunity poster to see if it meets filtering instructionsspecified by the poster. If, for example, the reference message isdelivered to the opportunity poster, the poster may have an option toread the reference message immediately or store it for later review.Moreover, a link and a summary of the reference message may be added tothe view of the application, such as that illustrated in FIG. 8.

Enhancing Endorsements and Verifying an Applicant's Profile

In one embodiment of the invention, in order to give more credibility toan applicant's profile, as described earlier, applicants are able to askpeople they know to add endorsements to their profile. In addition,applicants are able to request verification of certain parts of theirprofile by qualified third parties. For example, the system mayfacilitate the following: (1) sending a request by an applicant to auniversity that the applicant attended requesting that the universityverify the accuracy of the applicant's claims to having received aparticular degree from the university, (2) facilitating review ofapplicant's relevant claims by the verifying authority, for example, byproviding a link to relevant portions of the applicant's profile, andfacilitating sending a verification to the system; (3) receiving theverification and linking it to the relevant part of the applicant'sprofile.

In addition, the system may have the ability to “lock” a part of auser's profile that has been endorsed or verified. In one embodiment, a“lock” may be implemented as follows. For example, in a situation wherea particular applicant's profile shows that an employment position hasbeen endorsed or verified by a former employer, when verification isfirst attached to the employment position in the applicant's profile, atime and date stamp maybe included with the verification. If a usersubsequently attempts to change one or more details of the position, thesystem may check to see if the position has been verified, for example,by checking for a verification date and time stamp. If so, a message maybe displayed to the user indicating that the verification will bedeleted if the user changes the details of the position. In such a case,the user may be presented with the following options: (1) to enact thechange along with deletion of the verification; or (2) to store thechanges as a draft which will not show in the user's profile when viewedby others and to send the draft changes to the person who authored theverification, requesting the verifier to confirm the changes. If theverifier confirms the draft changes, or creates a revised verification,the old or revised verification will continue to appear along with theposition. If the verifier does not confirm or revise the originalverification, the user will have the option of retaining the draftchanges to the position without the verification, or discarding thedraft changes and keeping the original details along with the originalverification.

In one embodiment, if the user changes the details and an originalverification is deleted, this fact will be noted in the user's profilealong with the position. In another embodiment, if changes by the userare not confirmed by the verifier, the user may only be presented withthe options of keeping the original details or deleting the positionaltogether.

Limiting Who can View an Opportunity Seeker's Profile

In one embodiment of the invention, an opportunity seeker is givenaccess control over his or her profile. Accordingly, a user may limitwho can view his or her profile in response to a search for candidatesfor an opportunity, for example, a job. This allows a user to controlwhether his or her profile will be shown in the search results of somesearches. For example, the user may not want to be found by job searchesinitiated by someone in the user's current organization, or pastemployers.

In one embodiment, the system provides users with the ability to defineaccess instructions related to profile views in response to varioustypes of searches by various people, or people in various organizations,or people or organizations with particular characteristics. For example,a user may be able to construct a rule that specifies when the user'sprofile will be returned in a search, or whether the user's profile willbe returned in a search but the user's identity kept anonymous. The rulemay allow the user to specify when and how the user's profile may beviewed or not viewed according to one or more of the following criteria:

-   -   (4) The search objectives (e.g., searching for a candidate for a        job).    -   (5) Whether the individual searching is in a list of named        individuals.    -   (6) Whether the individual is a member of a list of named        organizations.    -   (7) Whether the searching individual has a profile that contains        one or more profile characteristics, such as skills, seniority,        industry, occupation, title, reputation indicators, etc.    -   (8) Whether the organization of the searching individual, or the        organization offering the opportunity, has characteristics such        as industry, number of employees, profitability or revenue        indicators, location, reputation indicators, etc.    -   (9) Whether the searching individual is connected to the user        within a specified degree or closeness or strength.    -   (10) Whether the user is connected to the searcher's        organization within a specified degree of closeness or strength.        Opportunities Search Companion

In one embodiment of the invention, the system may provide anOpportunities Search Companion (OSC). This feature may be a separate,downloadable software component that assists a user of a socialnetworking system in using the social network to evaluate opportunitiesposted on many different opportunity systems hosted by many differentorganizations. For example, in one embodiment, the software applicationmay be combined with the user's browser, e.g., as a “plug-in” that workswith the API provided by the maker of the browser. In anotherembodiment, the software may be combined with the user's mobile phone.The OSC may be able to detect when the user is receiving information(e.g., via a browser or cell phone) about a particular kind ofopportunity that the viewer has registered an interest in tracking.Accordingly, in one embodiment, the OSC may attempt to identify the typeof an opportunity being received as well as the person and/ororganization associated with the opportunity offer.

When these are identified and not ignored based on the user's previousinstructions, the OSC may then signal the user, for example, in a pop-upwindow in the application, and ask the user if the user is interested infinding a social network connection associated with the individual ororganization providing the opportunity offering. If the user indicates“yes”, then the OSC may send the required information, e.g., identity ofthe offering individual and organization and identify of the user, tothe social network system or systems that the user and opportunityprovider, or offerer, participate in.

The social networking system may then respond with information aboutsocial network connection paths between the user and the offeringindividual and/or offering organization. The user may also be presentedwith options for following up on this information, for example, byproviding a link to navigate to other interfaces provided by the socialnetworking system service.

The OSC may be able to detect the type of opportunity being offered andthe individual and/or organization making the opportunity offer bycomparing the information received with indicators related to thevarious types of opportunities that the user is interested in or may beinterested in stored in the user's profile. For example, the type ofoffer (e.g., a job offer) and the identity of the offerer may be derivedfrom the source address of the information that is received (e.g., theURI, IM address, or phone number, etc.) and by comparing that address toa table of types of opportunities offered via that address. The type ofoffer and identity of the offerer may also be discovered by comparingparticular components of the information received with indicatorsaccessible to the OSC. For example, embedded metadata such as html orxml codes (or tags) may reveal that a particular portion of the datacontains the name of the offering individual or organization orinformation about the type and nature of the offer.

In addition to automatically finding and displaying connection paths tothe user, the OSC may also record details about the opportunity forlater review and additional follow-up action.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of an Opportunities Search Companion thatis specifically designed to serve as a job search companion (JSC). Inone embodiment, when a user first installs the JSC application into thebrowser, the JSC may come pre-configured with a list of job sites thatit will be able to detect and add value to. For example, the JSC mayinclude a list of URI's that it can detect in the browser's address bar.In one embodiment, the user may be able to edit preferences in order toadd to or limit the recognizable URIs in the list. Accordingly, the JSCmay detect when the browser has been directed to a job site by matchingthe current URI of the browser to URI's associated with job sites in theuser's preferences.

In one embodiment, when a user is browsing a JSC-activated job site, theJSC “Main Interface” will open next to the page that the user is lookingat. In particular the JSC Main Interface (FIG. 9) will openautomatically when the user is looking at one or more pages associatedwith particular types of job search pages, such as job search forms (forentering a job search query), job search results listings, and resultsfor particular jobs. Otherwise, the JSC Main Interface will not be openunless the user has specifically set a preference to have the MainInterface open at all times.

Furthermore, whenever the Main Interface is open, a user may be able toenter a search in a special search interface built into the JSC Maininterface. When a user presses the “Search Jobs” button, the JSC willsearch all job sites in the user's list of preferred sites. Searchresults may then be returned in the lower section of the Main Interface.The source of each job may be listed in search results and may beindicated by an icon next to the job listed. If the user clicks on thejob listing in the Main Interface, the browser may then open theappropriate page on the originating job site that shows details for thatjob. In addition, special social network information related to the joband the user's own social network (as described above for the OSC) mayappear in the Main Interface within the tab “Inside Connections.”

The JSC Main Interface may also be opened when the user clicks on a menuitem labeled “Job Companion” in a special browser “toolbar” for thesocial networking system that the user has previously installed in thebrowser. For example, FIG. 10 illustrates a toolbar consistent with oneembodiment of the invention. In addition, the user may be able to entersearch terms for a job directly into an abbreviated “Search” text boxshowing in the social networking toolbar.

II. Applications for Opportunity Posters

In addition to the many features and functions available to opportunityseekers, the present invention provides a wide variety of novel andnon-obvious features and functions to opportunity providers, oropportunity posters.

Posting an Opportunity

In one embodiment of the invention, an individual user of the socialnetwork system may post an opportunity in a specialized postinginterface that provides information about the posting individual (e.g.,hiring manager), the posting organization (e.g., employingorganization), and the opportunity details (e.g., job details). Forexample, FIG. 11 illustrates an example Opportunity Posting Interfacethat may be used in one embodiment of the invention, to post anopportunity. Using the interface shown in FIG. 11 an opportunity poster(e.g., job poster) may enter job attributes, including job title,organization name, organization Internet URI, job function category,location, type of job (full-time, part-time, contract), job description,salary range offered, date posted, etc.

In addition to the above listed job attributes, the job poster maychoose whether or not to display information about himself or herselfalong with the job posting. For example, a job poster may select 1)whether or not to show his or her name and profile link with the jobposting, 2) the role, or job title, of the poster (e.g., hiring manager,company recruiter, staffing firm, etc.), 3) individual contactinformation (e.g., email, phone numbers, etc.). These controls andothers are shown in the example Opportunity Posting Controls Interface,which is illustrated in FIG. 12.

In one embodiment, the flow for creating an opportunity postinggenerally includes the following three steps: (1) filling out basic jobattributes, (2) filling out information about the individual posting theopportunity, and (3) confirming the opportunity posting, which mayinclude selecting a payment method. In one embodiment, after the userhas completed the first step, the system may automatically save theinformation into a draft copy for the user. This way, if the userdecides to exit the flow, at any later point in time, the opportunityprovider may return to the draft copy and continue where he or she leftoff without losing the information he or she had already entered.

In one embodiment of the system, in addition to providing informationabout himself or herself as the opportunity poster, as shown in theexample interface of FIG. 12, the opportunity poster may also provideinformation about a designated opportunity manager (e.g., a hiringmanager) who will review and respond to applications submitted by thoseinterested in the opportunity. In such a case, the system may send amessage to the designated opportunity manager asking that person toconfirm his role and to confirm or edit other information and settingsentered by the opportunity poster on the opportunity manger's behalf.

After an opportunity poster has submitted an opportunity to be posted,the opportunity poster may be prompted to enter payment information. Forexample, an opportunity posting may be contingent upon the opportunityproperly navigating a payment flow during which the opportunity postermay provide a payment for the opportunity posting. In one embodiment,after confirming an opportunity posting and completing the paymenttransaction, a ‘receipt’ email will be sent to the user confirming theposting. Accordingly, the receipt may include a link directing the userto a ‘Job Status’ page with a confirmation message. Furthermore, the‘Job Status’ page may include a link to the actual opportunity posting,such as that illustrated in FIG. 5.

Managing Opportunity Postings

In one embodiment, a job poster may manage one or more job postings bynavigating to a “Manage Postings” page, such as the example pageillustrated in FIG. 13. Utilizing the interface shown in the examplepage of FIG. 13, an opportunity poster may manage all ‘open’ postings.Links to the management interface may be available from several otherlocations, or user interfaces, of the system. However, to access themanagement interface, a user may have to log-in to the system, forexample, by providing a username and password with access rights to themanagement system. In one embodiment, the management interface includesall of the jobs the user has posted, organized into 3 sections—openpostings, past postings, and drafts. Furthermore, there may be a summarycount of the total number of jobs for each of these sections, as shownat the top of the example interface of FIG. 13. In one embodiment, thosesummary links point to the corresponding page for each of the threesections. In one embodiment, there may be additional actionable linksthat facilitate such tasks as creating new postings, and searching forcandidates.

In one embodiment, a list of all open postings is shown on themanagement page. For each open posting, the management page may includeany of the following information: the name of a job posting; a job code(if specified by user); date posted; expiration date; renew link (ifwithin a predetermined number of days from the expiration date)—goes to‘renew’ page; state (open); number of applicants; a link to an editinginterface for the posting.

The list of jobs posted may be shown in descending order by date posted,with the most recently posted opportunity listed first. The name of eachjob posting may be linked directly to the corresponding ‘Job Status’page for the job. For example, in one embodiment, the Job Status page,an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 14, may shows richer statusinformation about the job and lists all of the actual applications forthe job. The number of applications may also be linked to this page. Inaddition a link directing the user to an editing interface may beincluded for each job posing in the list. Accordingly, the editing linkmay lead directly to the main edit page for the job posting. Similarly,a link for renewing the posting may be included. The renew link for eachjob may lead directly to the renew page for the job posting.

Job Status

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a “Job Status” interface, consistentwith one embodiment of the invention, detailing status information abouta particular opportunity posting. In one embodiment the ‘Job Status’page is the poster's primary page for working with published jobpostings.

A job summary section in the “Job Status” interface may include basicsummary information about the job listing that appears on the detailedjob posting interface. This may include the title of the job andstandard criteria. It may display the same way it displays on the jobpage that will be viewable by job seekers. There may also be a link onthe page to go directly to the job listing. For example, in oneembodiment, the job summary section may include a “preview” link thatallows the job poster to view the job posting as it would be viewed byjob seekers. The preview page may include a link to bring the job posterback to the “Job Status” page.

In addition, the job status page may include a billing summary. Forexample, the billing summary information may show the price of the jobposting, when it was paid, the expiration date, and the form or methodof payment used, as well as a link to additional payment info.

In one embodiment of the invention, the “Job Status” page may include asection of actionable links associated with different tasks that may beperformed in connection with the job posting. For example, for open oractive postings, the following links may be available: Renew—goes to‘renew’ page; Edit—goes to main ‘edit’ page for this job; Createcopy—goes to ‘Create Posting’ page and starts a new posting pre-filledwith the information in this job; Close/End job—goes to ‘Close’ pagewhich allows the user to confirm closing the job and taking it out ofthe live jobs database.

Similarly, for closed or expired postings, the following link may beavailable: Create copy—goes to ‘Create Posting’ page and starts a newposting prefilled with the information in this job.

Micro-search for Candidates in Poster's Network

In one embodiment of the invention, an opportunity poster may beprovided with a special interface facilitating a search of his or hersocial network for potential opportunity applicants. For example, thesearch interface may include a form that is pre-filled with criteriarelated to a job posting so as to limit the search to individuals whoare most likely to be qualified for the job. Moreover, the resultingsearch may not be restricted to people who have applied for the job, butinstead, the search may be executed against the entire network of usersof the social networking system who have indicated an interest inreceiving information about job opportunities in general, or morespecifically about opportunities similar to the opportunity posted. Forexample, the search results that are returned and the options which thesearcher has for following-up on search results may be similar to thosedescribed in greater detail in the previously referenced and relatedpatent applications. In one embodiment, a job poster may be able to viewthe entire profiles of matching candidates, view social network datashowing how closely each candidate is connected to the poster (or toother people in the poster's company), view endorsement data includinginformation about the endorser's qualifications and connections betweenthe poster and endorser, view other reputation information, etc.

As shown in FIG. 14, the micro search form may be pre-filled withinformation associated with a particular job posting, for example: Titleof job; Region of job (hidden search field, not shown in search form);Industry of job (hidden); User type is ‘potential job candidates’ (userswho have indicated an interest in job opportunities).

In an alternative embodiment, in addition to or instead of using thecontents of a structured search form to define the desired searchresults, a semantic or concept-matching scheme (for example, usinglatent semantic indexing or similar methods) may be employed to matchthe posted requirements for the job to profiles of users in the system.

Applicant List

The “Job Status” page may also include a section showing a list ofapplicants who have applied for the job associated with the job posting.This section may list all of the people who have applied for the job,including each name linked to the ‘Application’ page for the specificapplicant. Accordingly, each applicant may be listed with their name,headline, date of application, and relevant social network information.In addition, the applicant list may be sorted by the name and/or dateapplied fields, and by other fields related to the poster's socialnetwork connection to the applicants and the poster's ability to use hisor her social network to reference check the applicants. For example,the applicant list may be sorted by the “Access Indicator” as describedin greater detail in U.S. Provisional Patent No. 60/625,287 filed onNov. 4, 2004 thus providing a sorting metric indicating the degree towhich the job poster may be able to find trusted introductions to peoplewho have or may have worked with the applicant or with the applicant'sformer employer.

Employee Referral Program Features

In one embodiment of the invention, features related to employeereferral programs may be implemented. Recent surveys have indicated thatover 66% of mid to large companies now have employee referral programs.An employee referral program is often operated by the company's humanresources department and hiring managers as a way to encourage employeesof the organization to refer qualified candidates for jobs open in theorganization. Research indicates that employees that are referred byindividuals who already work in the company are more likely to meet therequirements, to get hired, and to have greater retention longevity thanemployees who come in without referrals. However, existing employeereferral programs are carried out without the benefit of computer-aidedsocial networking systems such as the one described herein.

In existing employee referral programs, an employee may be encouraged toparticipate in the program and to refer any candidates who he or she mayknow to be qualified. However, it may be difficult to get widespreadparticipation of employees, even with an incentive program. Furthermore,it is often difficult or impossible for employees who are participatingin an employee referral program to be aware of all job openings in theircompany, and to also be aware of all potential qualified candidates intheir 2 to 3 degree social networks. The present invention creates adecentralized solution that insures that job posters, who have thehighest motivation for filling the position, will instantly become awareof employees who can refer high quality candidates.

In addition, as described in the following examples, the presentinvention makes it extremely easy for a job poster to send a request toall employees who can refer a qualified candidate in order to ask themto invite the candidate to apply for the job, or if desired by the jobposter, the referring employee may also be asked to directly introducethe employee to the candidate. Additionally, if the employee is notdirectly connected to the candidate, the job poster may request theemployee to introduce the job poster to a person who knows both theemployee and the candidate. For example, this could be useful for thepurpose of getting additional information about the candidate fromsomeone who knows the candidate, but who may be especially close to thereferring employee.

An important part of this invention includes use of special features ofa social-network-enhanced opportunities system to make employee referralprograms more effective. The methods to implement these special featuresare described in the following use case examples.

When a job poster posts a job, as described above, the system may thenautomatically initiate a search for candidates who match therequirements for the posted job and who are within the population ofregistered members of the underlying social networking system. In oneembodiment, only potential candidates who have also indicated aninterest in hearing about job openings are included in the result set.

Prior to returning the result set, each of the results may be evaluatedin order to calculate the candidates “closeness” to (1) the job poster,or (2) any other employee in the posting organization. For example,closeness may be determined by a combination of degrees of separationand a minimum strength of connections within the chain of connections.The result set may be returned immediately to the job poster based ondefault settings or specific preferences set by the job poster. Forexample, the results may always appear, or they may appear only whenthere is at least one candidate who is connected to an employee in theorganization. Or, the result set may not appear and instead a summary ofresults, such as that illustrated in the example interface shown in FIG.15 may be displayed.

In one embodiment, to produce this result set, the system may conduct aspecial count of matching candidates who are within a specified numberof degrees (or other measure of closeness) from any employees in theorganization, regardless of the potential distance between the jobposter and the candidate, or between the job poster and other employeeswho are connected to the candidate. This is an important distinction,because in a company with fifty-plus employees, many employees may betwo or three degrees away from the hiring manager, and thus candidateswho are within two or three degrees away from those employees may notshow in a search of the job poster's personal network if it is limitedfor example, to four degrees. Yet, any candidates who are within a lownumber of degrees of any employee may still be a valuable employeereferral.

Referring to FIG. 15, when the job poster clicks on the first link, asummary list of all candidates will be returned, with an option todisplay those who are within a specified distance to the organization'semployees at the top of the list in order of closeness, or in an orderthat is based on a combination of closeness and strength of match to thejob requirements. For example, the values for the measure of fit betweenjob requirements and candidate qualifications may be sorted into severalgroups (e.g., very high, high, and moderate) and then within each group,candidates may be sorted according to a measure of closeness toemployees within the organization.

In each candidate summary listing, indicators may be shown which providemore information about the specific candidates' (1) match to the jobrequirement, and (2) closeness to the poster or other employees in thecompany. When the job poster views a profile for a particular candidate,a special link or button may be displayed to enable the job poster toaccomplish the following tasks:

-   -   (1) Send a request to the candidate through the referral system        of the social networking system, i.e., going first to a direct        contact of the job poster and then onto other connectors in the        chain to reach the candidate. The request sent will include a        special embedded link that when clicked by the candidate will        direct the candidate to the job opening.    -   (2) Send a request to one or more employees in the organization        who are also connected to the candidate within a specified        degree of closeness, to ask those employees to take particular        actions, such as sending a request via the social networking        referral system to the candidate, inviting the candidate to        apply for the job. The request sent will include a special        embedded link that when clicked by the candidate will direct the        candidate to the job opening.

When an employee acts on a request by a job poster, or acts on his orher own initiative and sends a referral to a job, data on the jobreferral will be collected to track the referral and insure that theemployee gets credit for the referral if it successfully meets criteriaset up for receiving referral credit. For example, a referral recordwill be created with the ID of the employee, the ID of the personreferred, and the ID of the job referred. The employee may also receiveemail or other types of messages to thank the employee for the referral,and to announce incentive awards when they are earned. Other features ofstandard employee referral programs may also be employed in conjunctionwith the special features described in this invention.

For example, in another embodiment, job posters, hiring managers,recruiters, etc., and employees who are participating in the employeereferral program may also be able to send a special type of message toselected employees in the company inviting them to join theorganization's employee referral program. These messages will include alink, which, when clicked by the employee, may enable the employee tojoin the social networking system.

Applicant Profile View

In one embodiment, when a job poster selects (e.g., by clicking on) anapplicants name in the applicant listing for a particular job posting,an Application Profile page may be displayed. Accordingly, an ApplicantProfile page may include: a summary of the jobs the applicant hasapplied for, plus a link to the full job listings; a summary comparisonof the applicant's qualifications for each of the primary requirementsof the job; profile information on the applicant including current andformer positions, skills, education, etc. In addition, the profile mayalso include a link that will display and print a current copy of theapplicant's formal resume. Furthermore, network and reputationindicators for the applicant may be displayed. For example, network andreputation indicators may show an applicant's number of social networkconnections, endorsement information, third-party verificationinformation, etc.

Reference Check information indicating the degree to which the jobposter is able to find trusted introductions to people who may know theapplicant and may be able to provide background reference informationmay also be displayed. This may include, for example, an indication ofthe number of people in the poster's personal social network whocurrently work or have worked in the past in the same organization asthe applicant. Alternatively, it may include more detailed informationsuch as the summary information illustrated in FIG. 16.

In one embodiment, this display of information related to a referencecheck may provide links (e.g., the underlined portions of connectioninformation in FIG. 14) to quickly enable the poster to follow-though onthe reference check. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the first type ofconnection shows that there are 3 direct contacts of the job poster whoknow someone who knows the applicant. The second type of connection inFIG. 16 shows that the poster knows at least one person who knows one ofthe applicant's endorsers. The third type of connection in FIG. 16 showsthat the poster knows five people who work or have worked with theapplicant and who thus may know the applicant or someone else who knowshim. The forth type of connection in FIG. 16 shows that there are fourpeople in the poster's organization who are closely connected to theapplicant via their social networks. In this case, even though theposter doesn't know these four people, they are likely to help theposter reference check the applicant through their contacts since thefour work in the same organization as the poster. The fifth type ofconnection in FIG. 16 indicates that the applicant and poster shareother types of connections, such as membership in the same affinitygroup, former attendance at the same university, etc. By clicking on thelink in each type of connection, the poster can thus quickly see who orwhat the connections are and is then helped by the social networkingrequest system to send a request to the people who can help with thereference check.

Accordingly, utilizing the above features enables a hiring manager toget trusted introductions to potential references who might nototherwise be willing to provide complete information about an applicant,in part due to an increase in employment related litigation which hassignificantly reduced the cooperation of potential employmentreferences. Being able to find a trusted introduction to a potentialreference is an enormous advantage made possible by the presentinvention, which combines opportunities listing and searching withspecially designed social networking features.

Resume Searching

In one embodiment, resume searching is provided. For example, in thecontext of job and contract opportunities marketplaces, individual userswho have opportunities to offer may search a database of resumes ofpotential candidates. Such resumes need not be limited to current usersof the underlying social networking system, but may instead includeresumes from a variety of other sources, such as resumes provided by theopportunity provider, for example, by a hiring manager or a recruiter,or resumes provided by third-parties. In such a case, the system mayenable the user to search the resume database to not only find a matchbetween opportunity requirements and candidate qualifications, but alsoto search the social network of the user and others in the user'sorganization in order to find people with whom the user has a connectionand who can potentially provide additional information about thecandidates matched by the resume search. For example, when a particularcandidate is found in a resume search, the system may additionallysearch for people in the user's social network who work or have workedin the same organization as the candidate and potentially during thesame time frame. This is done, for example, by comparing the employingorganizations and dates employed in a resume with employingorganizations and dates employed listed in profiles of users of thesocial networking system who are in the searching user's social network.In addition, the system may be able to search for connections to peoplewho have listed a candidate as a contact, for example, by listingidentifying information about the contact, (e.g., name and emailaddress) in their personal contact address book that they have given theuser permission to search.

These features extend the reach of the social network opportunitiessystem to include applications for searching external databases in orderto find social network connections to individuals of interest who arefound in the database. It is another example of this invention's uniqueability to apply social networking features to add value to externaldata sources. The next section describes additional methods foraccomplishing that objective.

III. A Social Networking Platform that is Separate from, Yet Works with,One or More Opportunities System.

Much of the description of the invention above provides examples wherethe opportunity seeker and the opportunity poster are both users of asingle system that makes unique use of social networking features toenhance the experience of both types of participants. In a variant ofthis system, users of a social networking system are able to make use ofthe social network system features to get inside connections to theopportunity poster or supplying organization even in cases where theopportunity posting is provided in a separate system. For example,social networking features may be integrated into systems whereinformation on the opportunities is hosted, stored and served viainternet servers in the control of a different organization from thatwhich hosts, stores and serves information for the social networkingsystem.

FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment of a system having a social networkingsystem that is separately hosted, but integrated with, an opportunityexchange. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 15, server 26 is hosting asocial networking system, while server 28 is hosting an opportunityexchange. Accordingly, the social networking system is shown to includevarious user profiles containing information about users. Similarly, theserver 28 hosting the online opportunity exchange is shown to includeseveral opportunity postings. It will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that the two systems may be separately hosted by severaldistributed servers.

In such an implementation, for example, a single web page may beconstructed where one portion of the page interacts directly with theopportunity host and another portion of the page interacts directly withthe social network host. Similarly, one or more of the hostingorganizations may be hosting a mobile phone or peer-to-peer networkingapplication. This arrangement allows a user of the social networkingsystem to log into the social networking system and then navigate to thespecial page or interface that interacts also with the opportunity hostto carry out a search. The user may then enter an opportunity searchquery on the search page and then receive from the opportunity host anopportunity posting that lists the name and identity of the organizationoffering the opportunity. By selecting (e.g., clicking) a special linkin that page (as illustrated below in FIG. 17), information is directedto the separate social networking host. For example, the information mayinclude the identity and location of the organization listed as offeringthe opportunity. Accordingly, the social networking host servers thenare able to access the private relationship data of the viewer whoinitiated the search in order to then display all of the people in theviewer's social network who have or have had a relationship with theopportunity poster or the organization offering the opportunity. Forexample,

FIG. 18 illustrates an example listing of social networking contacts forone job seeker, based on an opportunity query submitted to a host otherthan the host of the social networking system.

In this way, the viewer's private social network data, and the socialnetwork data of other individuals who can connect the viewer to theopportunity poster, is never shared with the opportunity system host norwith the organization offering the opportunity. This method also enablesparticipants in a single social networking system to take advantage ofopportunities posted in potentially hundreds of separate opportunitiessystems through partnerships between the social networking hosts and theopportunities hosts.

Thus, various methods and systems have been provided with reference tospecific exemplary embodiments. It will be evident that variousmodifications and changes may be made to theses embodiments withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving firstinformation, the first information including qualifications of anopportunity seeker, the first information being provided by theopportunity seeker; storing the first information in a profile of theopportunity seeker; receiving second information, the second informationincluding requirements of an opportunity, the second information beingprovided by an opportunity creator; comparing the qualifications of theopportunity seeker with the requirements of the opportunity; based onthe comparing, providing the opportunity seeker with an option to beconsidered by the opportunity creator as a candidate for theopportunity; based on an acceptance of the option by the opportunityseeker, automatically submitting, from one or more modules incorporatedinto a system to configure one or more computer processors of thesystem, an application for the opportunity on behalf of the opportunityseeker to the opportunity creator, the application including at leastsome of the first information; determining a potential reference for theopportunity seeker based on a combination of a seeker closeness scoreand a creator closeness score, the seeker closeness score measuring acloseness of a relationship between the potential reference and theopportunity seeker within a social network of the opportunity seeker,and the creator closeness score measuring a closeness of a relationshipbetween the potential reference and the opportunity creator within asocial network of the opportunity creator; and providing the opportunityseeker with an option to submit a request to the potential reference,the request requesting that the potential reference serve as a referencefor the opportunity seeker with respect to the application.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the profile ofthe opportunity seeker does not indicate whether the qualifications ofthe opportunity seeker satisfy at least one of the requirements of theopportunity; and based on the acceptance of the option by theopportunity seeker, prompting the opportunity seeker to provide theindication of whether the qualifications of the opportunity seekersatisfy the at least one of the requirements of the opportunity; andwherein the submitting of the profile of the opportunity seeker to theopportunity creator is further based on the providing of the indicationof whether the qualifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy the atleast one of the requirements of the opportunity.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the application further includes a summary of the comparingof the qualifications of the opportunity seeker with the requirements ofthe opportunity.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a relevance of the opportunity to the opportunity seekerbased on a connection strength between the opportunity seeker and theopportunity creator, the connection strength determined from the socialnetwork of the opportunity creator and the social network of theopportunity seeker and wherein the providing of the opportunity seekerwith the option to be considered by the opportunity creator as acandidate for the opportunity includes ranking the opportunity among aplurality of opportunities based on the relevance of the opportunity. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the opportunity seekerwith an option to be considered by the opportunity creator as acandidate for the opportunity is based on a determination that thequalifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy the requirements of theopportunity.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application furtherincludes information pertaining to people that the opportunity creatorknows who have worked with the opportunity seeker.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the closeness of the relationship between the potentialreference and the opportunity seeker within the social network of theopportunity seeker is based on a number of degrees of separation betweenthe potential reference and the opportunity seeker within the socialnetwork of the opportunity seeker.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein thecloseness of the relationship between the potential reference and theopportunity seeker within the social network of the opportunity seekeris further based on strengths of connections in a connection chainbetween the opportunity seeker and the potential reference within thesocial network of the opportunity seeker.
 9. A system comprising: onemore processors of one or more machines configured by one or moremodules incorporated into the system to, at least: receive firstinformation, the first information including qualifications of anopportunity seeker, the first information being provided by theopportunity seeker; store the first information in a profile of theopportunity seeker; receive second information, the second informationincluding requirements of an opportunity, the second information beingprovided by an opportunity creator; compare the qualifications of theopportunity seeker with the requirements of the opportunity; based onthe comparing, provide the opportunity seeker with an option to beconsidered by the opportunity creator as a candidate for theopportunity; based on an acceptance of the option by the opportunityseeker, automatically submit an application for the opportunity onbehalf of the opportunity seeker, the application including at leastsome of the first information; determining a potential reference for theopportunity seeker based on a combination of a seeker closeness scoreand a creator closeness score, the seeker closeness score measuring acloseness of a relationship between the potential reference and theopportunity seeker within a social network of the opportunity seeker,and the creator closeness score measuring a closeness of a relationshipbetween the potential reference and the opportunity creator within asocial network of the opportunity creator; and providing the opportunityseeker with an option to submit a request to the potential reference,the request requesting that the potential reference serve as a referencefor the opportunity seeker with respect to the application.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, the one or more processors further configured to:determine that the profile of the opportunity seeker does not indicatewhether the qualifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy at leastone of the requirements of the opportunity; and based on the acceptanceof the option by the opportunity seeker, prompt the opportunity seekerto provide the indication of whether the qualifications of theopportunity seeker satisfy the at least one of the requirements of theopportunity; and wherein the submitting of the profile of theopportunity seeker to the opportunity creator is further based on theproviding of the indication of whether the qualifications of theopportunity seeker satisfy the at least one of the requirements of theopportunity.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the application furtherincludes a summary of the comparing of the qualifications of theopportunity seeker with the requirements of the opportunity.
 12. Thesystem of claim 9, the one or more processors further configured todetermine a relevance of the opportunity to the opportunity seeker basedon a connection strength between the opportunity seeker and theopportunity creator, the connection strength determined from the socialnetwork of the opportunity creator and the social network of theopportunity seeker and wherein the providing of the opportunity seekerwith the option to be considered by the opportunity creator as acandidate for the opportunity includes ranking the opportunity among aplurality of opportunities based on the relevance of the opportunity.13. The system of claim 9, wherein the providing of the opportunityseeker with an option to be considered by the opportunity creator as acandidate for the opportunity is based on a determination that thequalifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy the requirements of theopportunity.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the application furtherincludes information pertaining to people that the opportunity creatorknows who have worked with the opportunity seeker.
 15. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions that,when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform operations, the operations comprising: receivingfirst information, the first information including qualifications of anopportunity seeker, the first information being provided by theopportunity seeker; storing the first information in a profile of theopportunity seeker; receiving second information, the second informationincluding requirements of an opportunity, the second information beingprovided by an opportunity creator; comparing the qualifications of theopportunity seeker with the requirements of the opportunity; based onthe comparing, providing the opportunity seeker with an option to beconsidered by the opportunity creator as a candidate for theopportunity; based on an acceptance of the option by the opportunityseeker, submitting an application for the opportunity on behalf of theopportunity seeker, the application including at least some of the firstinformation; determining a potential reference for the opportunityseeker based on a combination of a seeker closeness score and a creatorcloseness score, the seeker closeness score measuring a closeness of arelationship between the potential reference and the opportunity seekerwithin a social network of the opportunity seeker, and the creatorcloseness score measuring a closeness of a relationship between thepotential reference and the opportunity creator within a social networkof the opportunity creator; and providing the opportunity seeker with anoption to submit a request to the potential reference, the requestrequesting that the potential reference serve as a reference for theopportunity seeker with respect to the application.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, theoperations further comprising: determining that the profile of theopportunity seeker does not indicate whether the qualifications of theopportunity seeker satisfy at least one of the requirements of theopportunity; and based on the acceptance of the option by theopportunity seeker, prompting the opportunity seeker to provide theindication of whether the qualifications of the opportunity seekersatisfy the at least one of the requirements of the opportunity; andwherein the submitting of the profile of the opportunity seeker to theopportunity creator is further based on the providing of the indicationof whether the qualifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy the atleast one of the requirements of the opportunity.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the applicationfurther includes a summary of the comparing of the qualifications of theopportunity seeker with the requirements of the opportunity.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, theoperations further comprising determining a relevance of the opportunityto the opportunity seeker based on a connection strength between theopportunity seeker and the opportunity creator, the connection strengthdetermined from the social network of the opportunity creator and thesocial network of the opportunity seeker and wherein the providing ofthe opportunity seeker with the option to be considered by theopportunity creator as a candidate for the opportunity includes rankingthe opportunity among a plurality of opportunities based on therelevance of the opportunity.
 19. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the providing of the opportunityseeker with an option to be considered by the opportunity creator as acandidate for the opportunity is based on a determination that thequalifications of the opportunity seeker satisfy the requirements of theopportunity.